User interaction with animated hair is desirable for various applications but difficult because it requires real-time animation and rendering of hair. Hair modeling, including styling, simulation, and rendering, is computationally challenging due to the enormous number of deformable hair strands on a human head, elevating the computational complexity of many essential steps, such as collision detection and self-shadowing for hair. Using multi-resolution simulation techniques and graphics hardware rendering acceleration, we have developed a physically-based virtual hair salon system that simulates and renders hair at accelerated rates, enabling users to interactively style virtual hair. With a 3D haptic interface, users can directly manipulate and position hair strands, as well as employ real-world styling applications (cutting, blow-drying, etc.) to create hairstyles more intuitively than previous techniques.

This video shows the real-time performance of the Interactive Virtual Hair Salon system.

This video illustrates hairstyles created with the interactive system used for human motion animation.

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